The Historical Writing Of Let The Great World Spin

Colum McCann is a famous contemporary Irish writer and critic,now living in New York.His works have been translated into 35 languages,among which Let the Great World Spin is the best-known novel to readers.This book won the American National Book Award in 2009 and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2011.In 2010,Amazon website named it as the Best Book of that year.Let the Great World Spin is known as a great 9/11 novel,however,the whole book does not mention the 9/11 event at all.Instead of using traditional description on the cruel and bloody scenes of wars and terrorist attacks written by the previous writers,McCann adopts the Irish lyrical style,and represents a panorama of the metropolis-New York in the 1970 s.Such a way of writing which deliberately avoids the direct portrait of historical traumas triggers readers’ thinking.Meanwhile,choosing the Twin Towers in the 1970 s as the background of the novel is more intriguing.Today’s world situation is more complex,and humans must search for a new meaning of existence and a new way out,including seeking for the help of the past era.In this novel,McCann juxtaposes the 1970 s with the contemporary age,which contains a profound historical philosophy.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the realistic significance of the novel and the formation of the writer’s unique view on history.This thesis is composed of six parts: the introduction,four chapters and the conclusion.The Introduction mainly discusses the personal experience and the writing characteristics of Colum McCann,the brief plot of Let the Great World Spin,the current research status of this work at home and abroad,and the research significance of studying its historical writing.Chapter One presents the development of Historical Poetics and New Historicism,and introduces some important concepts.This chapter focuses on the evolutionary process of the relationship between history and literature,and the dialectical relation between the history and the text.Meanwhile,it introduces Bakhtin’ theory of chronotope,which combines the historical time and space with the analysis of texts together.Chapter Two provides a detailed analysis of the historical and social background in Let the Great World Spin.In the 1960 s and 1970 s,the American economy boomed and the technology developed rapidly,which also brought negative effects-the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the alienation of humans’ mind;the political situation was not positive because of the exposure of the Watergate affair,thus the citizens’ belief on the government collapsed;the international image of America was broken owing to its attacks to socialist countries,and the Vietnam War left the Americans permanent traumas;counter-culture movement appeared as an outlet of the reality,and artistic styles like hip-hop,graffiti emerged,meanwhile,some artists expressed their dissatisfaction by taking drugs and abnormal sex.Chapter Three mainly explores the intertextuality between the historicity and reality in this novel.By applying his special identity as an immigrant,McCann absorbs the historical consciousness of other great Irish writers and mixes their ideas into his own works to express his thoughts on history.In addition,he makes the history of this novel secretly correspond to the Victorian era,which reflects the contemporaneity of the history.He borrows two real historical events-the high-wire walking performed by Petit in 1974 and the 9/11 terrorist attack,unites the fictionality of the art and the factuality of the history,and endows the novel with deeper meaning.The fourth chapter makes use of Bakhtin’s chronotope theory to analyze the “big history” linked by many “small stories” which spans the time and space in Let the Great World Spin.Through several spatial signs such as streets,living-rooms and homelands,McCann leads the readers to take a glimpse at the bustling life of New York in the 1970 s.Then he takes them back to the reality through the text,and provides them with a perfect opportunity to review the past and rethink the present.In conclusion,the analysis of historical factors in Let the Great World Spin and McCann’s exquisite artistic treatment of the historical truths can help the readers to reexamine the relationship between the history and the present world.To some extent,it urges the modern people to treat the history as a mirror and tackle various contemporary social symptoms.